Everything you need to know about this weekend’s Great Exhibition Road Festival

South Kensington’s vibrant celebration of science and the arts is back on 6-7 June

Few streets in London have as rich a scientific and cultural heritage as Exhibition Road, and this weekend there will be no better place in the city to be, as the annual Great Exhibition Road Festival returns!  

On Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 June, Imperial College London will once again lead this free for-all-ages extravaganza, in collaboration with our iconic neighbours including the Science Museum, the V&A, Natural History Museum, the Royal Parks and more. 

To mark 175 years since the original Great Exhibition, this year’s Festival programme goes beyond its usual mix of cutting-edge research and artistic exploration, with a dedicated strand of events examining the complex legacy of the Great Exhibition. 

You can register now for Festival updates in the run-up to the weekend. 

Transforming Imperial’s buildings for the weekend 

Running from 12.00 to 18.00 on both days, the Great Exhibition Road Festival will take over several Imperial sites across our South Kensington campus. More than 100 Imperial research teams, and nearly 1,000 academic staff members and PhD students, will deliver talks, workshops, exhibits and hands-on demonstrations for the public.  

The Imperial Main Entrance and Business School will host the World Science Zone, where you can make your own squishy robot inspired by flexible fibre-bots or explore how intelligent transport networks and low-carbon hydrogen could reshape tomorrow’s sustainable cities. 

The Happiness and Health Zone will take over the Sherfield Building, putting exciting medical innovations on display, including AI-powered diagnostics and wearable health tech. Inside the Flowers Building, visitors will be invited to shape the future of Imperial research in the Be A Scientist Zone where you can play a robot-controlled game of Operation to train future surgery robots, or design your own seizure-predicting jewelry. 

Experience the ground-breaking technologies shaping our world in the Tech Zone, which can be found in the Sir Alexander Fleming building, which also plays host to the Spotlight on Science talk series.  

This series includes science talks with a competitive edge: Ideas That Will Change the World. Three leading scientists will argue how their research represents the biggest fundamental shift in science, with the audience crowing a winner.  

Their research explores how we might radically rethink pain by harnessing the body’s own pain‑relief systems, how diseases could be reclassified through their underlying molecular signatures, and how ultra‑thin materials with remarkable electrical and magnetic properties may underpin future electronic and quantum technologies. 

Then head to the Adults Only Zone inside the Beit Quadrangle to grab a drink and bite to eat, alongside interactive, honest and sometimes provocative workshops and experiences. This zone will feature the Zen Bus, new for this year, which will offer a rolling programme of calming, immersive sessions that you can drop into throughout the day, featuring researchers from Imperial’s Self-Care Research Unit for conversations about loneliness and self-care.   

Off-campus and outdoor activities 

Outdoor spaces like Exhibition Road, Imperial College Road and Dangoor Plaza will feature a plethora of activities in marquees, pop-up performances, and music stages – including a monumental sand sculpture of Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace, which will be built live across the Festival weekend.  

Prince’s Gardens houses the Underground Adventure Zone, where visitors can discover a subterranean world, home to burrowing animals, sprouting seeds and vast, interconnected fungal networks. The Family Fun Zone, which moves to Kensington Gardens this year, will be packed full of brilliant activities designed for children under 12.

The Festival’s dedicated zone for young people, the NextGen Zone, will return to the Science Museum’s Smith Centre. Teens and young adults will tackle big decisions in how to stop a future pandemic, DIY their own lab equipment, challenge a robotic arm to a duel, and explore the layers of art through a different lens. 

The Cultural Connections talk series can once again be found inside the V&A’s stunning Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Lecture Theatre. Delve into history and culture, as well as links between science and art, with talks including Queer Albert Hall, The Joy of Playing Music and Britain’s First Black Musical Star.  

Want to start the fun early?  

The Great Exhibition Road Festival technically starts a little early this year... as the Science Museum hosts Innovation Lates on Friday night, in collaboration with Serendipity Arts, celebrating creativity, innovation and exchange. 

Explore the museum after hours at this adult-only evening of live performances, hands-on experiences and unexpected encounters across the galleries. Uncover new perspectives and discover how creativity and technology shape the world around us.

Serendipity Arts will also be bringing a stunning spectacle to the rest of the Festival weekend, as a parade of giants built from bamboo frames and hand-stitched cloth will weave up Exhibition Road between the museum facades and the pavement cafés.  

Get ready for the weekend  

Register today to receive updates ahead of the weekend and be the first to be notified if additional tickets for popular events go on sale. 

Make sure you visit greatexhibitionroadfestival.co.uk to discover what’s on, and have a browse of itineraries for every age: Adult Highlights, Young People Picks and Family Favourites.  

Plan your routes by getting familiar with the festival locations, read through the festival FAQs and start building your appetite by checking out our amazing food and drink traders.